Five from Exeter picked for CHaD All-Star game

EXETER — The rosters have been finalized for the 3rd annual CHaD East-West All-Star football game.

Comment

By RYAN O'LEARY

seacoastonline.com

By RYAN O'LEARY

Posted Jan. 7, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By RYAN O'LEARY
Posted Jan. 7, 2014 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

EXETER — The rosters have been finalized for the 3rd annual CHaD East-West All-Star football game.

The Exeter area will be well-represented, again.

Exeter High School will feature five players on Team East for the third consecutive year when the 2014 installment takes place on Saturday, June 28, at St. Anselm College in Manchester. The Blue Hawks will send Class of 2013 stars Zach Adler, Jay Inzenga, Ryan Kelly, Pete Lalime and Collin Richardson to the big event.

The game's venue has changed after the first two CHaD All-Star games were held at the University of New Hampshire's Cowell Stadium. The Team East training camp, however, will be back at Exeter for the third straight year.

"Overall, knowing the guys last year, seeing the game, I was like, 'That's what I want to go to,'" said Adler, one of four Exeter captains in 2013. "That was my goal. If anything else, if I could make CHaD, I would be good with that. I'm just really excited. I think it's an honor. I think that all of us are really excited that we get to play together again."

The five Blue Hawks will be joined locally by Newmarket High School senior Jake Valinski, a star linebacker for an Epping-Newmarket football team that reached the Division III semifinals.

Exeter assistant coach Skip Swiezynski will join this year's event as the Team East athletic director.

The East will be coached by Tony Johnson, the head football coach at Worcester Academy. Johnson's ties to Exeter trace back 19 years, from 1994-2010, when he coached Bishop Guertin High School, and captured six state titles and notched 10 overall state championship appearances; BG and Exeter met in the Division II state final six times over that span, splitting the difference with three wins apiece.

"I'm deeply honored to part of the game and CHaD," Johnson said in a release. "It's a great opportunity to educate and give back to one of the top health organizations in the country. I look forward to working with the kids, the staff and CHaD."

The event doubles a major fundraiser for the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, including the Kristen's Gift Endowment Fund for children fighting cancer; the game has raised over $500,000 in its first two years.

"I think it's a great cause," Adler said. "I think it's a great program and I'm very excited to do it."

Adler, a linebacker and offensive lineman for Exeter, figures to be among the Blue Hawks' heavy presence on the lines along with Richardson and Lalime. Inzenga, Exeter's 1,300-yard rusher last fall, will be in a backfield that includes Pinkerton star Manny Latimore and Spaulding's Trey Scott.

Team East will be loaded with top linebackers, including Exeter's Kelly, Newmarket's Valinski and Pinkerton's Matt Madden. Offensively, the East will have an intriguing quarterback battle between Portsmouth's Phanor and Winnacunnet's Veasna.

Team West will be coached by the retired Paul Lavigne and led by 2013 N.H. Gatorade Football Player of the Year Trevor Knight, a quarterback from Nashua South who has committed to UNH. The West includes players from the state's three championship teams of Concord (Division I), Plymouth (Division II) and Bow (Division III).

Exeter has now sent 15 total players to the CHaD game, which is the max under the program's rules. Last season, Exeter sent Zach Bosen, Tyler Grant, Logan Laurent, Jamie Vogt and Jameson Whiteley to the event. The inaugural East team included Exeter grads Tim Stackhouse, Brad Tiernan, Adam Morin, Conor Carrier and Jake Pleadwell.

The West holds a 2-0 record in the series, including last year's 13-7 victory. The 2012 game went to West in a runaway, 44-12.